Juno News - Is the Freedom Convoy making a comeback？

00:00:00.000 Welcome to Canada's Most Irreverent Talk Show.

00:00:05.020 This is the Andrew Lawton Show, brought to you by True North.

00:00:15.240 Hello and welcome to you all.

00:00:17.840 This is the Andrew Lawton Show, Canada's Most Irreverent Talk Show here on True North.

00:00:22.940 It is Tuesday, December 20th, 2022.

00:00:26.480 We are, I believe, the third night of Hanukkah.

00:00:30.920 I might be the fourth night.

00:00:32.660 I apologize for not checking that moments before the show.

00:00:36.100 I think it's night three of Hanukkah.

00:00:37.740 So if you are celebrating Hanukkah Samayak,

00:00:39.920 and my apologies for not remembering how far along we are in it,

00:00:43.680 we are also T-5 days to Christmas.

00:00:46.820 That one I know very well.

00:00:48.280 If you are celebrating Christmas, I hope you are getting ready.

00:00:51.340 Some of you might even be braving the malls right now

00:00:53.940 as you listen to the show.

00:00:55.580 And I say Godspeed and God be with you, if that is the case.

00:00:59.880 And Kwanzaa, just to cover off all the bases, Kwanzaa is starting up, I believe, on the 26th.

00:01:04.440 So it's a little too early for the Kwanzaa greeting, but we'll get you covered on a future program.

00:01:10.560 What other holidays? Rambanan's not near here. I believe Diwali's already come and gone.

00:01:16.440 You have to be diverse these days. You can't wish people... 1.00

00:01:20.380 This is why you just do happy holidays as a catch-all,

00:01:22.580 But then everyone who celebrates Christmas thinks you're taking the Christmas out of the Christmas season, which I don't necessarily want to do.

00:01:29.620 I'm told I am being sinophobic by not referencing that the Lunar New Year is coming soon.

00:01:36.020 And to be honest, I have no idea when the Lunar New Year is.

00:01:38.640 I assume the moon will tell us when it is ready.

00:01:41.280 But a happy Lunar New Year to all of you.

00:01:44.720 This is what happens when, yeah, see, one of my colleagues is saying I'm a racist for not knowing that.

00:01:50.140 So I've been called far worse by far more people.

00:01:54.660 So we, again, this is why you just can't do everything.

00:01:57.040 This is why like the left has it right.

00:01:58.780 We just have to wish sort of a woke secular solstice and the, and that's it.

00:02:03.680 But you can't have any joy.

00:02:05.380 So maybe if all goes well on the 23rd, we will do the Festivus for the rest of us.

00:02:11.360 We will all have our feats of strength live on the Andrew Lawton show.

00:02:15.120 Just don't put tinsel on the Festivus poll.

00:02:18.120 And if you have no idea what I'm talking about, you need to brush up on your 1990s pop culture and go and binge watch Seinfeld over the holidays.

00:02:27.000 Maybe this should just be the show now. I'll just like list all the holidays.

00:02:30.280 And if I forget one, then I could be accused of racism by whatever that group is.

00:02:34.380 But I think we actually have a real show for you today.

00:02:37.900 And I want to talk about Freedom Convoy 2.0.

00:02:42.220 Freedom Convoy 2.0, which is supposedly coming up.

00:02:46.200 And it's so bad that Ottawa police are like already preemptively cracking down saying they are not going to allow a repeat of Freedom Convoy 1.0 in which a group of truckers and supporters protesting vaccine mandates took over downtown Ottawa for three weeks.

00:03:04.280 And I want to, first off, set the stage here by saying that a lot of these concerns are overblown.

00:03:11.680 James Botter of Canada Unity is talking about a repeat performance to some extent,

00:03:17.920 but even James Botter is saying that he wants to be in Ottawa from February 17th to February 21st

00:03:24.780 and then depart Ottawa the 22nd.

00:03:27.580 So I guess that means there until the 22nd, unless it's like early checkout.

00:03:31.220 Checkouts at 11 a.m. If you stay beyond, then you get billed for another night or something.

00:03:35.660 But he wants to do a different sort of version of this thing.

00:03:40.400 He's calling it the olive branch, and police are saying, no, no, no, you don't get to do that.

00:03:45.580 The Ottawa police chief, which is like five police chiefs since Peter Slowly,

00:03:50.760 Chief Stubbs said police have already done significant work to address a potential protest in February.

00:03:57.340 They've done intelligence gathering.

00:03:58.800 They've spoken with the OPP. They've procured equipment, which they aren't saying, but I'm

00:04:04.060 assuming is referring to tow trucks because we all know from the Public Order Emergency Commission

00:04:09.280 that heavy duty tow trucks were like the Achilles heel of the police and federal government in the

00:04:16.320 Freedom Convoy protests earlier this year. And it's not clear what they will permit and what they

00:04:23.780 won't permit because you still have in this country, believe it or not, it's hard to believe

00:04:28.420 with Justin Trudeau at the helm, a right to protest. You have a right to descend on Ottawa

00:04:33.940 streets and cheer and wave your signs and wave your flags, and no one can take that constitutional

00:04:40.400 right, and I would say that natural right away from you. Well, the government can try,

00:04:45.300 but I think that the right to protest is a God-given right that is enshrined in the

00:04:49.440 Constitution. It's not a right given to you by the government. It is a right affirmed by the

00:04:54.780 government. And the reason that's an important distinction here is because it doesn't matter

00:04:59.040 what exists on paper when you have a natural right to do things. And freedom of speech includes the

00:05:05.300 right to protest. And one of the big failings of the government, of which there were many,

00:05:10.400 with its crackdown on the Freedom Convoy protest, is that they never offered a lawful alternative.

00:05:16.260 They never said, okay, all of you can protest, but the trucks have to go. You pick up your trucks,

00:05:22.640 You take them out to Van Cleek or Arn Pryor, and you can come back in on foot.

00:05:27.940 They never gave people that option.

00:05:29.860 To the contrary, they pepper sprayed, they tear gassed, they ran over with horses,

00:05:35.320 anyone who wanted to stick around, even if they were there on foot.

00:05:40.100 So if the government and police do anything to stop pedestrian protests in Ottawa

00:05:45.640 this coming January and February, that will be an absolute outrage

00:05:50.520 and an incredible violation of civil liberties.

00:05:53.220 If they stop trucks from getting downtown,

00:05:55.340 I think that's probably a legitimate use of their power

00:05:58.540 if a truck is planning on camping out.

00:06:00.920 But the real laugh here is that the Wellington Street corridor

00:06:04.460 has already been blocked off since January 27th of this year.

00:06:12.600 And police and the city of Ottawa have never reopened Wellington Street.

00:06:17.320 It remains closed to street traffic.

00:06:20.520 So it's actually great if you're a pedestrian and you want to just go to Wellington Street.

00:06:24.460 It has already been blocked off for you, ready to await your protest, if that's what you would like to do.

00:06:30.580 I should note this is not legal advice.

00:06:32.840 I'm talking about the government's own logic and how this is something that people who want to demonstrate on Parliament Hill,

00:06:39.840 for whatever cause, should be able to do so.

00:06:44.000 Now, the reason I think this is an important discussion to have with a bit of an asterisk here,

00:06:49.540 As I mentioned, James Botter, who wants to do this olive branch edition, I've talked to other people who have said that there are other people, other groups, other events planned that are not connected with James Botter.

00:07:02.300 I've talked to people who were there for the first Freedom Convoy and said, you know what, I want to go back for the one year anniversary just to check it out.

00:07:10.100 I want to have a bit of a reunion.

00:07:12.300 There are other people that are planning their own little things.

00:07:15.180 So the media's framing of this is already completely way off.

00:07:20.680 There is no official Freedom Convoy 2.0 in any form, certainly not one organized by James

00:07:28.340 Botter, who, I mean, I believe, I don't actually know for sure, I believe he's still facing

00:07:32.380 criminal charges.

00:07:33.540 I don't know if he's allowed to go to downtown Ottawa, but there are other things that are

00:07:38.200 going to happen.

00:07:38.780 So don't be surprised if there is some loose group of Freedom Convoy acolytes that appear

00:07:45.020 in Ottawa at various points or one point from the end of January to the end of February.

00:07:51.640 But here's where I would caution people with a little bit of wisdom from history here.

00:07:59.380 The Freedom Convoy was an incredible moment in Canada.

00:08:03.260 It was one that I wrote about in my book, The Freedom Convoy, the inside story of three

00:08:07.700 weeks that shook the world, which I remind you exists now for the sole purpose of if

00:08:11.520 you have someone that you still need to buy a Christmas present for it is available and I

00:08:16.000 believe on Amazon you can get like next day shipping depending on where in the country you

00:08:19.660 are so you can get it for your freedom loving uncle or you can just get it as a gag gift for

00:08:24.160 your freedom hating uncle but it's really you should just get it for anyone and everyone but

00:08:28.740 this was a momentous episode in Canada and the nature of historic events is that they can't be

00:08:37.280 easily replicated and i'm of the mind that they shouldn't be replicated and not that the freedom

00:08:43.340 convoy is woodstock but i'll use woodstock as a comparison here because woodstock was just this

00:08:48.260 world-changing concert that took place on a farm in upstate new york in the 1960 1960 i should know

00:08:55.720 this 1969 i think why should i know that i wasn't even alive but anyway woodstock momentous concert

00:09:00.760 they tried to do Woodstock I think three other times they tried to do various anniversaries of

00:09:08.880 it and it just never got off the ground because the first one was the real one and it was the

00:09:15.700 one that had all of the conditions all of the time all of the context all of the people all

00:09:20.860 of the momentum all just aligning the stars aligned for that one big thing and that's true

00:09:26.660 of the Freedom Convoy as well. The stars aligned to get the truckers from Delta, British Columbia

00:09:32.280 to Ottawa, from Southern Ontario to Ottawa, from Quebec and Atlantic Canada to Ottawa.

00:09:37.740 The stars aligned to get the media paying attention to it. They all aligned to get just

00:09:42.680 the right players to stand up. People like Tamara Leach and Chris Barber and so on.

00:09:48.120 And you cannot manipulate some other set of events and recreate those conditions. It happened once.

00:09:55.440 It was necessary in that time, and you can't just repeat that.

00:10:00.420 So if people want to go back to Ottawa in honor of or in memory of the original Freedom Convoy,

00:10:06.880 I think they should have at it.

00:10:08.060 A lot of people made lifelong friendships during the original protests.

00:10:12.680 And if they want to have a bit of a reunion, and it's an excuse to go to Ottawa

00:10:15.960 because you need an excuse to go to Ottawa in general, certainly in January or February,

00:10:20.800 then have at it.

00:10:21.920 But don't go thinking it's going to be something that it's not.

00:10:26.160 It's not going to be a repeat of the Freedom Convoy 1.0,

00:10:30.900 which was the exact situation that the circumstances warranted.

00:10:35.260 And let's be real, those circumstances do not exist in the same form.

00:10:40.240 And this is a bit of a contentious point,

00:10:42.260 because the thrust behind this protest was about freedom, broadly.

00:10:49.000 But more specifically, it was about freedom from COVID mandates, freedom from vaccine

00:10:53.000 passports, the trucker mandate, as well as other mandates.

00:10:56.320 And it was interesting throughout the Public Order Emergency Commission hearings, learning

00:11:00.860 about how governments that denied the convoy played a role in what they were doing were

00:11:06.580 actually behind the scenes conceding things to the convoy.

00:11:09.960 Like Ontario, for example, denied that the convoy had anything to do with its decision

00:11:15.040 to announce a date to end vaccine passports.

00:11:17.620 But in the documents we saw, that actually was playing a role, just as it was in Alberta and just as it was in Saskatchewan as well.

00:11:26.520 So the convoy did absolutely make a difference.

00:11:30.760 And I think it was a very positive difference in the gestalt of things, in the grand scheme of things.

00:11:36.800 But I'll say here that the purpose morphed as the protest went on.

00:11:43.520 And when Justin Trudeau started calling them a fringe minority with unacceptable views, that was a morphing of the protest.

00:11:51.020 Because all of a sudden, it was about this vilification by the government.

00:11:55.140 And then things went on a little bit further, and the Emergencies Act came into effect.

00:12:00.160 And all of a sudden, this became the real threat to freedom.

00:12:03.000 More than vaccine mandates, it was this government's use of its power to crack down on peaceful protesters.

00:12:09.840 And I'll show you how gaslighting unfolds from this government.

00:12:15.660 This is a clip of Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister of Canada,

00:12:18.540 last week defending the right to protest and assemble and have different views.

00:12:25.300 Building a stronger future for everyone.

00:12:28.560 We mean all Canadians, no matter who you voted for.

00:12:32.900 let us always remember conservative canadians are not our enemies they're our neighbors our

00:12:46.180 uncles and cousins and our co-workers we need to listen to them respectful disagreements and debate

00:12:54.900 are an essential part of our democracy and will always be a part of our lives even sometimes

00:13:01.380 around the christmas table so this holiday season let's remember to be there for one another

00:13:09.460 to be patient with one another to be open to one another after all we're all in this together

00:13:17.460 okay was there like a mistranslation that no that was actually him speaking there that wasn't

00:13:32.120 translated we're all in this together we all need to listen to each other our political opponents

00:13:39.860 are not the enemy is he doing like a comedy is this comedy is this sketch comedy was this

00:13:45.940 Saturday Night Live? Has he forgotten everything about? I mean, it was bad enough when Justin

00:13:52.400 Trudeau said under oath, oh, I never called the unvaccinated names. And we're like, well,

00:13:56.380 we have the clip of you doing it. But now he comes out and we get, oh yeah, we all have to

00:14:00.900 be patient. And even if we disagree, that's all fine. That's all hunky dory. It's how do we get

00:14:05.840 from fringe minority with unacceptable beliefs to kumbaya? Like this is like, this is gaslighting

00:14:14.460 101 and of course a lot of canadians will go along with this and but oh he's so thoughtful he's so

00:14:19.580 sweet he's reaching across the aisle not like those evil partisan conservatives under pierre

00:14:24.620 polyev but this is what we are dealing with and this is why again that broader message of freedom

00:14:30.060 of accountability of truth is still alive but i stress that i don't think the convoy is the

00:14:36.060 vehicle pardon the pun that is going to be as powerful in any subsequent form as it was the

00:14:43.260 first time around that's all it's not an indictment not a condemnation it's more of a prediction but

00:14:49.100 i do want to walk back a part of that because i think the convoy movement which is larger than

00:14:55.340 the convoy protest has been incredibly influential it has made as i said earlier lifelong friendships

00:15:02.220 it's also created various groups and networks and communities across this country some of

00:15:07.820 which have decided to pay it forward one in particular i learned about very recently in

00:15:12.940 oshawa ontario a group of people communities for freedom they met during the convoy they looked

00:15:19.260 around and saw that their community oshawa needed to rebuild and they wanted to help this process

00:15:24.940 along so they did what we should be welcoming in the holiday season they planned a little gift

00:15:31.420 giveaway to homeless people to the needy where they were going to give them food and toiletries

00:15:37.580 and clothing and just various necessities at a weekend event they called it christmas stockings

00:15:43.020 for the homeless nothing political nothing about the convoy or anything remarkable remarkably

00:15:48.380 controversial and the city of oshawa's bylaw officers descended on them early on and said

00:15:55.580 you can't do this if you go around the park giving out these free things you're going to be in

00:16:00.060 violation of a bylaw so the organizer ashley wicket said all right well what we'll do is

00:16:04.860 we'll just stay outside of the park. I'll hand out stuff from my car and that way we're not

00:16:09.800 getting into anyone's way. The city sent her another letter and said, well, no, if you do

00:16:15.220 this, you're going to be in violation of the highway vending bylaw. And I'm convinced that

00:16:20.340 if she said I was going to do it on her own front lawn, she would have been told she was violating

00:16:25.420 the Ashley Wickett front lawn bylaw. I think at a certain point, the city of Oshawa just decided

00:16:29.580 they didn't want anyone helping the homeless on their watch. So they decided they were going to

00:16:34.080 get involved and i heard from ashley this morning the city of oshawa was there and actually gave

00:16:40.640 her a ticket for 250 for that nonsensical highway vending bylaw and she wasn't vending anything by

00:16:48.580 the way she was giving out things to the homeless here's a little clip of the bylaw enforcement

00:16:53.920 officers circulating their gift giveaway here courtesy of our friends at rebel news

00:16:59.300 i love that merry christmas yeah well merry christmas to you too

00:17:20.060 to the tune of 250 ashley wicket joins me on the line now ashley thanks for coming on today great

00:17:27.240 to speak with you. Hi thank you for having me. So I mean you and I spoke last week when the bylaw

00:17:35.140 officers were originally coming down on you and I kind of hoped that when there was a bit of

00:17:39.740 attention towards this they would leave you alone and realize that you weren't doing anything wrong

00:17:44.420 but they were there they were out there and I don't know if it's full force but they were certainly

00:17:48.200 present on Sunday. Yeah they were there they did not approach us on Sunday at all. So they were

00:17:55.380 just driving around i i know later on in that clip they were taking pictures and videoing you

00:18:00.760 how did you end up getting a ticket um i received the ticket uh through email this morning

00:18:06.680 so so they could have walked up to you on sunday and handed this to you and instead they emailed

00:18:15.120 it to you i don't even know if that's like i don't know if that's legal but they they could

00:18:18.820 have gone sunday and they didn't they emailed you this morning yeah absolutely they could have came

00:18:23.380 up to me so did they did they say anything did they like give you a message like attached is

00:18:29.460 your holiday greeting from the city of oshawa like i'm curious this delivery method i find insane

00:18:34.660 um all they said in the email was um attached is the ticket due to your event on sunday and that's

00:18:42.660 it wow what what was it just for people that didn't follow true north's coverage or follow

00:18:48.620 this on social media what is it you were actually doing on the weekend yeah um we just went out uh

00:18:55.720 we had lunch uh sandwiches uh some orange juice and some treats uh we also had a whole bunch of

00:19:03.200 donations uh underwear socks and whatnot what you'd usually put in a stocking and we just wanted to go

00:19:09.380 out and hand out to the homeless and less fortunate and did you have many of the people

00:19:14.340 there that were coming that were receiving these things and were appreciative of them

00:19:19.140 Yes, absolutely.

00:19:20.720 So how many people did you interact with that were homeless or needy on the weekend?

00:19:26.000 I would say around 50 people.

00:19:29.000 So in some sense, it's good that the city didn't stop it from happening, that you were allowed to proceed.

00:19:36.040 But still, I find it egregious that you were punished for doing this.

00:19:40.880 Yeah, absolutely.

00:19:42.240 And I have to say something.

00:19:43.680 before i showed up there was actually another group a church that was handing things out from

00:19:49.680 their vehicle there before our group was there and they weren't affiliated with you or anything

00:19:55.340 no no and we i don't know if you know them but are you aware of they were fined at all in the last

00:20:01.260 few days um i don't know them uh they also told i did ask them you know do you guys have a permit

00:20:07.960 for this uh they said they do not and they are quite quiet about their things they don't they

00:20:15.060 keep it within their group of 30 and that's it because they know that um bylaw gives you know

00:20:20.660 trouble you know i emailed the head of bylaw enforcement a few times in the last few days

00:20:27.440 and they've not given a single response they haven't said why it is that they believe this

00:20:32.020 is a problem they wouldn't even confirm that they had issued the the ticket to you although

00:20:36.180 you did send a picture and I take it at face value there. You had said something when you

00:20:42.080 and I spoke by phone last week that I felt may have been true, which is that you think they may

00:20:48.020 have, you may have attracted the wrong kind of attention because your group has freedom in the

00:20:51.760 name. And I see what you're wearing now has Freedom Convoy 2022 on it. So you're not shying

00:20:56.640 away from your personal beliefs on this, but this wasn't a political event in any way.

00:21:01.680 No, it was not. I have support from people in the freedom movement. I have support from people that aren't in the freedom movement, and we can all come together and rebuild the community.

00:21:13.880 Actually, one of my friends was out there about an hour earlier. He does have flags on his vehicle, and he was approached by two bylaw officers saying he may not do this, which is funny because he was just parked alone doing nothing.

00:21:28.440 so yeah so now the the canadian flag is like the universal symbol of we don't want anything to do

00:21:34.720 with you to some of these people and you know i was reading because i i actually know i've been

00:21:39.220 to oshawa but usually it's been on the 401 driving through so i haven't spent much time there and

00:21:43.780 a few people mentioned to me something that i didn't know which is that the mayor of oshawa

00:21:48.060 supposedly has an experience with homelessness himself and he's been a motivational speaker and

00:21:53.660 he's overcome this. And you would assume that in a city like that, of all places, there would be a

00:21:58.760 semblance of compassion for people like you that are out doing this work. But that just didn't

00:22:04.300 exist. And I don't know for a fact, but have you heard from anyone on council who's sympathetic

00:22:10.180 or from the mayor's office that's sympathetic with this? Or has it just been from bylaw that

00:22:14.880 you've heard? I haven't heard from anybody else yet. Unfortunately, it's just been bylaw.

00:22:20.140 that's crazy and i again i mean i know you did this because you wanted to help people not to

00:22:26.300 make a point but are you fighting this ticket are you paying the ticket i'll be fighting the ticket

00:22:31.680 and have you had any like are you doing this on your own have you had any legal assistance

00:22:36.820 um as of right now uh no um but i'm glad i'm glad you are fighting it though because i think a lot

00:22:44.720 of like $250 is a lot of money in to a lot of families I don't want to deny that but a lot of

00:22:50.760 people would just pay it to make it go away and I think when you do that you give the city license

00:22:56.240 to do this sort of stuff over and over again yes exactly yeah um I won't be bullied into you know

00:23:04.820 just paying and also again like I said there was another group there that were doing through the

00:23:12.400 vehicle. We parked in a parking lot and we walked everything over. Yeah. So this is the part I find

00:23:19.940 odd. So just walk me through what actually happened because I saw that I wasn't able to

00:23:23.880 make it, but I saw that brief video of, you know, that rebel journalists had taken and I didn't see

00:23:30.260 any illicit activity from your group in there. Although I did hear someone point out that there

00:23:35.040 might've been a violation of the distracted driving laws by the city of Oshawa by law enforcement

00:23:40.180 officer so we'll let we'll let the Durham police handle that but uh you you parked in a parking lot

00:23:45.640 which I'm assuming you paid for parking or it was free parking but you didn't get a parking ticket

00:23:49.880 or anything you get food out of your car and necessities out of your car where's the highway

00:23:56.360 vending taking place well exactly that's what I'm wondering myself so it's like I don't even know

00:24:03.860 like I feel like they were just going to go after you for something and they just decided to just

00:24:09.960 like reach into a filing cabinet of bylaws and pull one out here but like where was the actual

00:24:15.580 distribution taking place yeah that's what i would like to know myself i mean we took

00:24:21.280 the more difficult route and decided okay we won't do it out of back of the trunk

00:24:26.040 we'll just grab as many things as we can in our hands and just physically hand them out

00:24:30.800 and where did you do the distribution uh it was across from uh the park or on the sidewalk

00:24:39.280 wherever they were. I mean, multiple people would go up to wherever the homeless was.

00:24:45.000 But it was on the sidewalk. It wasn't on the road.

00:24:47.920 Yes, on the sidewalk.

00:24:49.580 So, and again, the idea that you would have needed a license or a permit to do that.

00:24:55.200 And I think it's interesting, the other church group that was present in doing that in the same thing.

00:25:00.680 And that would certainly reaffirm your theory, I suspect,

00:25:03.380 that they just didn't like people with Canadian flags and freedom in their name.

00:25:07.260 uh yeah exactly it uh almost confirmed it for me well well where do you go from here what's next

00:25:14.700 for you well i am going to dispute the ticket and uh you know i did have someone reach out that is

00:25:24.840 close to the area where the homeless are located and said i may use their property

00:25:29.720 in future times so that we could avoid this situation.

00:25:35.640 That's wonderful.

00:25:36.600 Well, if you do another event like this, please let me know.

00:25:39.500 I am sure to put out the call on here,

00:25:41.380 and I suspect you may have even more donations than you had this time

00:25:45.200 if people want to show up and lend a hand.

00:25:47.980 So I appreciate you doing this,

00:25:49.140 and I'm so glad that you are not letting yourself be bullied by the city

00:25:53.940 because you had said that when we spoke last,

00:25:56.960 that that's really what it felt like they were doing to you,

00:25:58.760 just bullying you into not doing this yeah absolutely I won't stand down I will help who

00:26:06.500 I want when I want preach it that's the spirit Ashley wicket of communities for freedom in

00:26:13.300 Oshawa I was going to offer to pay the ticket for you but you're not fighting it which is

00:26:17.580 even better so we'll not help you pay that ticket and we'll very much support you as you go up

00:26:23.240 against them and please do keep us posted Ashley Merry Christmas to you absolutely Merry Christmas

00:26:28.300 to you too. Thank you. All right. Thank you. That was such a great story. I mean, it's funny that

00:26:33.380 you can take what is a heartwarming story at first of, hey, this group wants to do something nice.

00:26:38.880 That's lovely. We should all do nice things. And then Ottawa bureaucrats, or sorry, Oshawa,

00:26:43.800 very easy to get those two mixed up given how they're behaving. Oshawa bureaucrats though,

00:26:48.960 it's not an autocorrect, it's Oshawa, just decide we don't want this to happen. We don't want anyone

00:26:55.360 to help the homeless you have to be licensed to and if you read my story one of the lines that

00:27:00.240 they gave ashley which was just bizarre was well maybe if you really want to help the homeless you

00:27:05.000 could just donate to established charities uh you know for people that are homeless i feel they will

00:27:10.420 probably take a hamper in hand over a check to another organization which will at certain point

00:27:17.380 pay it forward but it's an immediacy that you're able to offer with this and you know i've often

00:27:22.660 said that I have, generally speaking, little regard for municipal bylaw enforcement. I generally

00:27:30.080 cannot find any major use or purpose for them. And every time a story like this comes up,

00:27:35.900 it reaffirms very much that position. So let's talk about the broader context here just before

00:27:42.540 we wrap things up. And this is a microcosm of, I think, a larger fight, which is that people that

00:27:47.640 take a stand for freedom are vilified and maligned by those in positions of power and it's why I

00:27:55.240 think there is probably a bit of momentum behind this idea of continuing on with the freedom

00:28:01.040 movement the same people that want to have another little gathering in Ottawa but at a certain point

00:28:07.420 I also think people need to take a step back and say that the freedom movement can exist without

00:28:13.140 there being an actual freedom protest and a convoy protest in Ottawa and you know I think

00:28:20.840 leading by example is probably the absolute best thing because one of the big narratives that

00:28:26.540 emerged from the mainstream media in the convoy 1.0 protest in Ottawa was that oh they were

00:28:32.100 stealing from the homeless and you know that was like one of the most easily debunked things when

00:28:37.100 anyone said well actually they're feeding the homeless they're cooking food and there's so

00:28:40.800 much food they don't know what to do with it and they're trying to bring it to homeless shelters

00:28:44.100 and homeless shelters are saying wow even we don't have enough need for that food here and you had

00:28:48.620 homeless people that were staying by the food tent that were being fed that were also helping out

00:28:53.000 that had a sense of community that was the spirit of the convoy it was about people it was about

00:28:58.600 humanity and when you see that trickle out into these other applications like giving the homeless

00:29:05.600 stockings of food and necessities and toiletries and giving them that in Oshawa, that is to me a

00:29:12.700 bigger purpose and a higher purpose than a bunch of trucks in downtown Ottawa. We've got to end

00:29:19.800 things there. My thanks to all of you for tuning into the program today. Tomorrow, we will start

00:29:24.720 a little bit of a year-end theme of content here. We're going to have Paul Wells on the show

00:29:29.160 for a post-mortem of the Public Order Emergency Commission

00:29:32.780 and the Justin Trudeau factor in this last year of politics

00:29:38.140 and lots more planned in the weeks ahead

00:29:40.680 as we do the countdown to Christmas and to the end of 2022.

00:29:44.320 But I want to thank you all very much for tuning into the program today.

00:29:48.060 We'll talk to you tomorrow.

00:29:49.280 Thank you, God bless, and good day to you all.

00:29:52.960 Listening to The Andrew Bunton Show.

00:29:54.780 Support the program by donating to True North at www.tnc.news.

Juno News - December 20, 2022

Is the Freedom Convoy making a comeback？

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